MTN Nigeria Revenue Nears N3 Trillion as Data Demand Surges

MTN Nigeria reported revenue of about N2.99 trillion for the first half of 2026, a 25.9% increase from a year earlier, as rising data consumption and a larger subscriber base offset persistent cost pressures in Africa's most populous market.

Service revenue reached N2.97 trillion, while data revenue jumped 38.4% to N1.70 trillion. Profit after tax rose 70.6% to N707.5 billion, and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation stood at N1.7 trillion, a margin of 55.9%.

More subscribers, more data

The company ended the period with about 92.2 million subscribers, up 8.9%, and 55.7 million active data users, up 9.3%. Average monthly data usage per subscriber rose 15.2% to 14.8 gigabytes, reflecting growing demand for video, social media and mobile commerce. Smartphone penetration reached 66.4% on the network.

Data has become the company's growth engine, overtaking voice as the main driver of revenue expansion.

Costs and investment

The results were struck against a difficult operating backdrop. Capital expenditure was N620.5 billion, directed mainly at network expansion and fibre rollout, and the company spent N29.75 billion on diesel to power base stations amid unreliable grid supply. Taxes and levies totalled N622 billion, a longstanding complaint of telecom operators in Nigeria.

MTN Nigeria said it operated about 62,200 sites and had laid more than 43,000 kilometres of fibre, infrastructure it describes as central to meeting surging demand for broadband.

Beyond connectivity

The company's mobile money arm, MoMo PSB, grew its wallet base from 2.7 million to about 5 million, part of a broader push into financial services. It declared an interim dividend of N26 per share.

The group also reported that Nigeria's total active mobile subscriptions stood at about 195.11 million as of mid-2026, with MTN crossing 100 million subscribers on the network in September, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission. For investors, the half-year results underscore both the scale of the opportunity in Nigeria's digital economy and the cost and regulatory hurdles that come with serving it.